The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-02-21
ATHLETICS AND RELIGION.
The Discourse of Rev. NJ. L. Haines on
the Relation Between the Two.
Healthy Piety Best Attained and Exhibited
by the Man with Healthy Body-Spe-
cial Church Services Yesterday.


the pastor. Rev. NJ L. Haines. preached on "Ath-
letics and Religion, or Christianity and Mans
Body" taking as his text Therefore elorify God
in your body."-Corinthians vi, 20. He said
man may elorfy God in weak and sickly body,
but. as rule, he can glorify Him when he has
what Juvenal prayed for "a sound mind in a
healthy body" Christianity does not glorify
brain at the expense of Drawn. Samson and
Goliath do not fulfill New Testament ideal of
manhood. but, other things being equal, the
health and robust figure of the athlete are bless
ings of no small worth. Before we read of
David as poet. or harper, or king, we read of
him as brave hearted athlete. Mr. Gladstone
is all the better statesman and Christian by rea-
son Of the bodily gymnastics that have preserved
his vigor eight years past the allotted three
score and ten. Gymnastics have more to do
with morals than many are willing to admit No
small part of bad theology comes from dis
ordered liver. Thank God spiritual experience
does not depend absolutely upon physical condi-
ton, but healthy piety is attained and exhibited
most naturally by him who has healthy body
There is usually o flavor of MOI bidness about
sick piety.
In its teachings concerning the body Chris
tianity avoids two extremes, the ascetic craze
of the fourteenth century and the athletic craze
Qln6L6enLQ.
on one hand, nor idolizes it on the other The
| roots Of ascetlcism go far back. The great ideal
of the religion Of India, Brahmanism, is based
upon the gnostic notion Of the evil nature of
the body; so, as part of their system, the Hin
docs countenance the treating of the body with
contempt, and sanction cebacy, beggary fast
| ngs and frightful self-tortures. A Young
| Mems Christian Association, with its equip
| ment of gymnasium, bowling-alleys and bath
rooms, is much more in accord With the teach
ing of the Bible than monastery with its equip
| ments of cold, stone floors, narrow cells and
| hair shirts. The real value which
men place upon anything is what they are will
| ing to pay for it. We pay S., 900. 900 in this
land each year for the of foreign
missions and $780, 100000 for intoxicating
| drinks. A few years ago the chief cook OF the
| Parker House. Boston, received larger salary
| than the president of Harvard University.
| This whole city was canvassed in desperate
| effort to raise last $4,000 to secure the
| erection of the Young Mems Christian Associa-
| ton building, and make binding the 1000 pre-
| viously pledged Yet he had noticed Saturday
that few gentlemen enthusiastic in baseball,
had raised nearly nine thousand dollars in a
| short time to secure one of the League mines for
| this city. A frst-cass baseball team costs for
| its maintenance for single season $50, O00
| What university that would provide for The
| salary of an average professor in Indiana
college is about half what the pitchers and
catchers of the League teams receive, and the
| ball players have six months of vacation and
! the professors two.
About year ago one of Harper's publications
bad the pictures of two noted men. One was of
Cardinal blcCloskey, who for over fifty years had
been priest and the distinguished prelate of
| the Roman Catholic Church, the representative
in one way of six millions of people, the first
cardinal ever appointed from the United States,
| and of scholarly attainnents and fine
Christian spirit and wide influence. The bio
graphical sketch giving the record of the great
Cardinals life was not quite half column IN
length On another page of the same illustrated
journal picture Of the champion short
distance runner, man who ran fifty yards In
five and oneh half seconds, and one thousand
| yards in two minutes and thirteen seconds. The
article describing the life and achievements Of
this young man was half as long again the
article describing the life of the great Cardinal.
And this was not in a sporting paper, but 6
heightened journal.
The human body, as beheld through the lent
of the Holy Scriptures, is neither to be degraded
as in the ascetc, nor idolized, as in the modern
athlete 1t would have us bear in mind the sig
nifcant fact that GOD assumed human body il
his incarnation. In studying the New Tesla
ment teachings regarding the body we cauno
fail to notice the warning against the mstak,
into which some fall of separating the body and
the soul as though they were two Incompatible
Joined in unhappy marriage for a season from
which death will be happy divorce ST. Pau
does not separate matter and mind in that way
They are unlike but meet in body and soul ant
the union is human nature